Monday November 23, 2009 5:46 pm.

it continues to feel like the middle of the night, when it is not even considered evening.  got a job today, at the school in Tarnów, which is where I wanted to work.  They want me to show up by Thursday, so that I can start right away.  That feels a little crazy.  That means we have to leave Wednesday, or Thursday, but the latter would suck;  to travel for 8 hours and then start the next day.

hooray that they were desperate enough to hire me, boo that they are actually desperate and need me there right now.

still, that settles a lot of the worry in my mind.  and it is close enough to prague that i could go visit, and it is only an hour from Kraków, so i can hang out there, too.

also, there is family nearby.  Maria Kawa and her awesome husband.  they live on a farm in a village about 15 minutes outside of Tarnów, in two rooms, with an outhouse, geese in the trees and ducks underfoot.  they have lived in the same house for forever.  my mom has pictures from when she went to visit them in the 80’s, in that two room house.  they came into a little bit of money, so they bought a fridge.  and that’s it.  the rest is for their children, who are living in London and Ireland, working construction.  maybe they are back now, who knows?  i haven’t met their kids, though i did meet their grandkids.  that little brat.  some aspects sit uneasy with me.  like the preferential treatment of the boy, while the older girl is blamed when he hits her.

“you should know better than to sit that close to him.”

for reals.  puke.

anyway, whatever, it is not my place to say.  just makes me grumble a little is all.

but i will be living near them now, and i still have to work out all the details with the school.  i wish there was more time to get ready.  not at all any time.  fuck.

wish i had taken the time then, too.  but last week at this time i was sitting there, feeling flushed, waiting to go, not wanting to go.

what the hell kind of hold is that?

being purposely obscure.  again.

damn straight.

anyway, sara and i are sitting in café katyrenka, which does not have internet, but does have celebratory wine.  another aspect of me having to leave so quickly is that i don’t want to leave her behind/unsupported.  but they need me there so fucking quickly.  i want her to come with me.  she is waiting to hear if they have another opening.  argh.

not sure what to do.

one thing is for sure, i am sick of this in-between.  i need to feel a settling of things, which has eluded me for 6 months or so.  it’s fine to be a world traveler, but really i need to put down roots every now and then, so i can not feel as crazy.

there are so many things that make me feel crazy.

one of them is the fact that i do not have my glasses.  they are in the shop, since they fell apart all on their own.  they couldn’t fix them in-shop, so they had to send them out, which means everything is a little bit foggy, or far away.  there is a buffer between me and the world, which makes me feel drunk even when i’m not.  so then i figure, might as well get drunk, right?

good thinking.

today is the day of short declarative statements.

i hope that everything turns out well with the school, as i have high hopes about their thesis statement.  they are all about engaging students, and having fun.  every sunday is baseball sunday, though it’s really more a kind of softball that they play.  they have extracurricular clubs and drama societies and a lending library.  awesome.  i am really excited that they have given me the chance.

arggh.

anyway, i never wrote about the train to warsaw, or to toruń.  there was too much going on, and then we were here, and it was raining, and we had a cat mewing outside our door and we were walking across the bridge and being busted by the transit police.  it was really nerve-wracking, the train, because we were sitting in the restaurant, saying goodbye to Thomas, and waiting for sara to show up, so we could head back to hotel pivovar and get all of our fucking luggage.  oh god, there was way too much luggage.  well, she didn’t show up, and 6:30 rolled around, which was panic-time, so we said our goodbyes and ran for the metro.  we were hoping to see her on the way to the metro, but she was somewhere in the vicinity, lost, unable to find the restaurant.  it is a Mexican restaurant run by expatriates.  i wasn’t hungry, so i didn’t get any tacos or anything.  i was also worried that they would not be any good, or that they would be too good, and the melancholy of missing san francisco would merge with the poignancy of leaving prague and make my fucking head explode.

plus i wasn’t hungry.

so we rushed to the hotel, grabbed all of our luggage, remembered that the wheel was broken on the big, heavy suitcase, dragged it up the fucking hill, sweating and cursing, wondering how we have so much stuff.  down the elevator to the metro, and then on the train, switch to the red line for one goddamn stop, argh, too much luggage, and then we had to drag everything down the platform to the elevator.

and sara and leo were waiting for us in the train station, near the ticket counter.

they had shown up at the restaurant shortly after we had left, and CR had taken them to the train station.  what a nice guy.  she already had all of her stuff, so it really worked out for the best.  if she had met us there, we would have had to part ways anyway, so we could go get our stuff.  it just sucked that it was so uncertain for so long.

anyway, we had to wait for the platform to be announced, which they only do about fifteen minutes before the train leaves.  then drag drag drag, and then wait for the train to arrive.  we devised an awesomely cunning scheme to get all of our stuff on the train, which involved me getting on the train, and mom and sara throwing everything up to me.  this backfired, though, when all of our stuff took up the only available space by the door, and still there was stuff to get on the train.  i had to throw it in an empty compartment and rush back for more, hoping it would not be noticed/stolen.  somehow we got it all on the train, and started to settle down for the night, when the ticket collector came by and told us we were in the wrong car.  the next car down was for warsaw, and the train was going to separate in the night so we had to make sure we were in the right car.

flashback to three years ago.  mom and i are taking a night train to warsaw, and we have second class tickets, so we climb on the train that says “2” on the outside.  we don’t pay attention to any signs inside the train.  if we had, we would have noticed that they all said “pierwsze klas.”  oops.  first class on the inside, second on the outside.  not really our fault, would you say?

the first ticket collector said nothing about our misplacement, a fact that would return to piss me off greatly later.  we went to sleep, and were woken in the middle of the night by a woman who my mom later dubbed “hitler’s girlfriend.” she told us we were in the wrong class and would have to move.  granted, she did ask where we were going first, so she would have let us stay had we been going anywhere but the big city. but, well.   so she kicked us out.

let me tell you how hard it is to find two open places on a packed train to warsaw at 3 in the morning.

let me also tell you that polish men are so determined to help a lady out, that if you are put in their already over-crowded cabin, they will wake from sleep and put your luggage up on the rack for you.  then they will give you their window seat.

even if you are not a lady.

though it is possible that mom stole that window seat.  as she is wont to do.

so, when the ticket collector told us that we had to be in the next car down, and then i saw that the next car down said first class, i grew a bit uneasy.

she assured us that it was fine, it had been made second class just for the journey, don’t worry, sit down.

so we moved all of our stuff, and mom stole my window seat.  we tried to turn out the light (you can’t), luxuriated in our first class cabin, and tried to fall asleep.

i think it was in Krakow, the first separation of the train.  i can sleep on a stopped train, and i can sleep on a moving train, but when one state becomes another, that’s the end of that.  so, we stopped, we backed up, we moved forward, we crashed into other cars, and then we moved on.  but that was the end of my sleeping for pretty much the rest of the journey.  we stopped somewhere else, as well, and did the same thing.  but that second time it was three times as long a pause in the journey.  then i remember looking out the window, later, and seeing a sign for Katowice.

then someone came into our cabin and asked if we were going to Katowice.

we weren’t.

at some point some folks came on the train and settled in the cabin next to ours.  i know that they were speaking very loudly, and i was trying not to listen, because it was interfering with my trying to sleep.  i don’t know what the hell was going on, all i know is that we were woken by a gentleman coming into our cabin and asking us to make sure that we had all of our things.  i couldn’t figure out why.  apparently there were police on our train, and someone had had something stolen, and oh my.  we tried, valiantly, to sleep through it all.

except sara, who just slept through it all.

sara is a really good sleeping person (from terry’s offhand compliment to Melissa, after she dropped her F-bomb at the white board: “and you are a very good … drawing person.”)  she can sleep through anything, including policemen on the train and strange men asking us to make sure that we have all of our belongings.

mom later said that she thought one of the men who came in “was a communist.”  i’m not sure what she meant by that.  i think it was that she was all asleepy, so the figure of authority at the door threw her back to visiting the country during the communist occupation.  or maybe she is just nuts about communists.

i know some communists, and they don’t generally look like that.

anyway, we got to warsaw with all of our things still in our possession, and, exhausted, got tickets for the next leg of our journey.  we had to wait an hour on the platform for the train to toruń, so we had the worst coffee ever and laughed about all of our stuff.  i was surprised to hear that the announcements for the trains are in polish and english now.  a couple of years ago they would make no concession to english speakers, even in the capitol.  weird.

i did make sara go outside and look at stalin’s palace of culture and science, behemoth skyscraper across the street from Warszawa centralna station.  then we waited.

the last time i took the trains here, they would barely stop.  you would throw your things on, and hope to get yourself on before they took off from the platform at speed.  things have changed a little, because we had time to get all of our crap on the train.  a gentleman asked me if i needed help with the luggage, but he did it in polish and i was not at all present to hear what he had to say.  we ended up sitting in his cabin, and mostly sleeping, before we got into a discussion about the “pig flu” and the storks that sit on the chimneys and how western Poland has much more beautiful architecture than eastern Poland, because the Russians tore all of the beautiful ancient buildings down and constructed their “building monsters.”  he may have said “monsters of buildings.” his english was pretty good.

english is definitely more prevalent than it was just two years ago.  weird.

anyway, he helped us get our things off the train, and then he went off to Bydgoszcz and we went to our camping site hostel room and the rest, well, is history.

i think i need to head back to the house now and see about getting my shit together.

ok, love love. 6:52 pm

p.s. there is a guy in the corner playing the repertoire of hippie shit nora loved, redemption song, break on through, all sorts of crap, on a guitar, and singing along in his thick-accented english.  love it.

Storybook is a great website with games, word banks and videos about a collection of stories written by authors Scoular Anderson, Debi Gliori, Mairi Hedderwick and Frank Rodgers. It would be a prerequisite to have the books of course and the books in question are Never Keep a Python as a Pet, Katie Morag and the New Pier, My Little Brother, I Can’t go to Sleep, The Bunk-Bed Bus, Backseat’s Special Day, Oh No Peedie Peebles and The Snow Lambs. Teachers of the younger classes my well be familiar with some of these and hopefully have them in their libarary. If so the website is for you.

The sie has interactive activities for each of the stories including bright, fun games and choosing the correct letter to complete words from the story. There are also videos of the authors talking about their story and reading excerpts. If you have these stories I highly reccomend using this website. It is suitable for children from Junior Infants to possibly 2nd class at a push.

LOOKING BACK ON my life, I can appreciate the magical unfolding of my journey; arriving wherever I happened to get dropped off, having no clue where I was going and yet somehow being guided through my challenges by an inborn knowing, every step of the way. The premise that I now accept and trust with every fiber of my being is that there are no mistakes in the universe, that I am always at the right place at the right time and that my feelings always tell me whether I am moving in the right direction. That, for me, is the way to a First Class ticket on this amazing journey through life.

Although I now travel First Class (metaphysically speaking) most of the time, this was not always the case. It was only in the last few years that I was upgraded to First Class more and more often. Although Business Class was pretty good, I knew after having dipped my toe into First Class every now and again that that was the space I wanted to be in all the time. So my determination over the last ten years has been to move closer and closer to the First Class seat for an even more enjoyable and fun ride.

All of us on this journey through life experience days when it feels like we are flying First Class and days it feels like we are jammed into a seat in Economy with hardly enough room to breathe. My desire to share my story with you, about my experiences as a pilot as well as other aspects of my life, is that somehow my story of living mostly in joy, in spite of the circumstances, will activate the belief within you that if I CAN DO IT, ANYONE CAN!

Source: flickr (User: Globalist360)

It’s an industry much-maligned, the airlines – flyer satisfaction has suffered over the years, due to flight delays, lost luggage, unsatisfactory in-flight service – and most recently, extra charges for in-flight meals and checking in baggage.  The virtual event industry, in fact, has been a beneficiary of decreased air travel, as more and more attendees (and meeting planners) opt for virtual events.

That being said, the virtual events industry could stand to benefit in adopting programs pioneered by the airline industry.  Let’s consider a few.

Source: American Airlines

Frequent Flyer Programs

According to Wikipedia, “As of January 2005, a total of 14 trillion frequent-flyer miles had been accumulated by people worldwide, which corresponds to a total value of 700 billion US dollars”.  What are frequent flyer programs all about?  Creating active and loyal customers.  You’re naturally incented to build up your miles on a single airline, in order to qualify for a free flight, free upgrade to first class – or, credits that can be used to purchase goods and services.

Virtual events, on the other hand, are all too often “one and done”.  Yes, you may attend a great virtual event, but a week or a month later, you’ve moved on to the “next thing”.  You may return for the same virtual event later in the year (or, next year).  But you probably don’t re-engage with that event until it comes around again.

And, guess what?  When you do come back to next year’s event, you’re asked to enter a blank registration page (from scratch) all over again!  Virtual event platforms – and, virtual event show hosts, need to consider affinity programs for virtual events.  Such programs make a lot of sense for:

1. Ongoing virtual events that repeat once (or more) per year
2. Ongoing virtual communities that are open 365 days/year

If a virtual event is truly “one and done”, an affinity program makes no sense.  However, for the ongoing events and communities, affinity programs generate:

1. Activity and engagement
2. Loyalty – an attendee enrolled in a virtual event affinity program is more likely to attend the next event [compared to another attendee who did not enroll]

So how might you award “miles” in a virtual event?  Map event activities to “points” and allow attendees to view their real-time point score – activities that might generate points:

1. Visit a booth
2. Attend a session
3. Chat with a booth rep
4. Submit an in-show blog posting
5. Submit an online event survey
6. Rate a booth

Importantly, when you register members to your affinity program, re-use the same profile data for the subsequent events.  This not only provides a convenience to your members (e.g. seamless access into all subsequent virtual events without having to re-register), it generates loyalty and continued attendance (since it’s so convenient to attend each event).

UPDATE: additionally, encourage members of the affinity program to invite their colleagues and friends to join.  Reward them with additional points (or privileges) for each referral that turns into a new member.

For the ongoing community, the points structure serves to reward the more active community members – incenting them to keep logging in and participating.  The key here will be an incentive program that provides real value to those members who have achieved high point scores.  More on that in the next section.

Source: flickr (User: golden_toque)

Tiering of Services

First class, business class, coach.  Which one you travel in depends on how much you’re willing to pay and how loyal a customer you are (i.e. how many frequent flyer miles you’ve banked).  Either way, you know that the airlines create clear differentiation between these tiers of service.  First class travelers can board the plane first, sit in much wider and more comfortable seats and be treated to premium food and beverage (that’s included in their ticket).

In virtual events today, premium services tend to be exclusive content that’s available on a “pay per view” (individual content item) basis – or, by way of a premium attendee package, which costs more than the standard package (which may be free).  Virtual event platforms – and, virtual event show hosts, ought to consider additional tiers of service within an event.  The key will be to create features for which attendees will pay extra – or, for which they’ll perform additional actions to achieve premium status.

As such, virtual event show hosts will need to create the airlines’ first class service tier – e.g. something attendees will actually yearn for.  These premium services would allow the show host to generate additional revenue.  In addition, the premium tier could be bundled into affinity programs, incenting more activity and engagement (from attendees) in order to reach premium status.

So let’s say I’m a frequent contributor to a technical forum – or, I frequently visit the Lounge and help other attendees troubleshoot technical issues.  I’m basically generating a lot of “value” for other community members, on behalf of the show host.  As such, if I’m in the virtual event affinity program, I should be awarded points (for my actions) that build me up to premium status.

At the premium level, I might receive:

1. Free access to exclusive content (which otherwise would have an associated charge)
2. Access to an exclusive lounge area with audio/video chat access to experts, executives, thought leaders
3. The ability to host my own chat room with a video stream of myself (increases my visibility within the community)
4. A special avatar for premium members only

Reward your loyal and most engaged attendees and you end up encouraging others to join the fray.

Source: SkyMall

Convert a captive audience

The industry (and, retailers like SkyMall) realized that they had a captive audience for the duration of a 2-hour (or 20-hour) flight.  Sure, there’s reading material, TV, movies (and increasingly, WiFi access), but there’s also a product catalog that’s neatly tucked into your seatback.  And when it’s near time to land and you need to “turn off all electronic devices”, it’s all too easy to grab the SkyMall and peruse through a product catalog.  Before you know it (for some of you), you’ve just charged $50 onto your credit card.

In virtual events, the active audience is a captive audience – attendees are busily viewing sessions, visiting booths, chatting with other attendees and chatting with exhibitors.  Show hosts and exhibitors need to provide this captive audience a valuable and convenient way to “convert” attendees.

Organize your content well – and provide tailored content to individual “personas” (e.g. “Storage Administrator’s Guide to Data Deduplication in the Financial Industry”).  Provide tools (e.g. an RFP requester) that allow attendees to conveniently reach out to multiple exhibitors at once.  Engaged attendees who are not converted from a “visitor” to an “opportunity” are merely lost opportunities.

In conclusion, I think the virtual events industry stands to benefit from adopting tactics used in the airline industry.  Now if only I could convert my virtual event attendances into frequent flyer miles!

If you are looking for the perfect job, or a change of career, you could do a lot worse than joining the Olympic movement as a member of the board. Not only are you responsible for promoting amateur athletic sport both in your country, and around the globe (a very worthy endeavour), you will also live the life of a Banana Republic potentate by everyone you meet on the planet, with the possible exception of your wife. When you also consider many athletes are no longer amateur, but millionaires from their day jobs, you don’t even have to be very successful at your main purpose, either. It’s one of the easiest jobs on the planet – especially when you consider you are paid one of the best salaries in history, and are on expenses. But why are you treated the way you are?

Ever since the politic debacle’s of the early ‘80’s, when politics dictated an amateur athlete’s career arc, consider the size of the venues that have hosted the games. On the winter games side, Calgary, Lillehammer, and Nagano, and Atlanta and Athens in the summer months weren’t’ exactly global metropolises. After Moscow and Los Angeles, it looked as if a leaner, more stripped down games would soothe the diplomatic wounds we were all suffering from, and also get back to basics for the quadrennial celebration. Unfortunately, it also opened the experience of actually ‘getting’ the games up to local governments. In many cases these meant the very first time that the venue in question were going to be the focus of the world. So anything spent at the time to sway people’s minds, would be repaid exponentially in future tourism and investment cash. Therefore whatever these cities could do ‘above the table’ the better. Unfortunately, as is usual with human nature, these lessons were well learned by future venues, expanded, and therefore expected by the inner circle of a few thousand that make up the Games’ secretariat.

For this Olympiad, we have been shocked as host cities what we have to do when this Star Chamber gets here. First class travel, complimentary tickets to final events, penthouse hotel rooms, changes of traffic patterns in their favour, and member’s individual choice of meals during official Olympic events are not only expected, they are demanded – a necessary part of the host’s responsibilities. This is all for the handful of decision makers, and their support staff, and secretaries, their whole families, and members from their own countries. All in all, about 2% of all expenditure expected to be made by us proles on the sidelines is given away in order to make these people feel at home. Unfortunately, Vancouver is the largest city ever to host the winter games, so we are now using a different set of rules – and we have to do this by trying to make money from a much larger visitor number than those smaller towns. At what point is it our job to maximize profits? I guess it greasing palms after your product is bought, trumps any support the Olympic movement owes us for soldiering on through a huge global economic explosion to continue to present their product, and make less money from it. While paying more for it after these members of the sporting royal family have left for pastures and troughs anew.

Si chiama INSPIRATION OF JAPAN ed è la nuova gamma di prodotti di bordo che la prima compagnia aerea privata giapponese si accinge ad installare sui propri aeromobili a partire dal 2010.

La compagnia nipponica ha dedicato al riguardo un microsito che è raggiungibile al seguente indirizzo :
https://www.ana.co.jp/int/svc/en/new_brand_2010/

I nuovi prodotti saranno disponibili in servizio regolare a partire dal 10 Febbraio 2010 sui voli NH0009 e NH0010, in volo tra Tokyo Narita – New York JFK, in concomitanza con l’entrata in servizio dell’ultimo modello di aeromobile consegnato, il Boeing 777-300 ER. Successivamente il prodotto verrà esteso ai collegamenti verso Francoforte e Londra.
I nuovi B777-300ER saranno configurati a 3 classi con 18 posti di First Class, 68 posti in Business Class, 24 in Premium Economy e 112 in Economy.

E’ inutile dire che All Nippon Airways ha fatto le cose in grande e ha presentato una gamma di offerte realmente al passo con i tempi e decisamente interessanti. L’operazione di rebranding che la vede al centro dell’attenzione merita sicuramente di essere approfondita nel dettaglio.

FIRST CLASS

L’hanno chiamata ANA FIRST SQUARE e sarà  il prodotto TOP della gamma, ossia la First Class; All Nippon Airways non sembra avere dubbi e si accoda in scia alle più rinomate compagnie del mondo – quali Etihad Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Jet Airways – introducendo delle vere e proprie SUITES.

Girando per il sito e sfogliando le immagini colpisce subito la spaziosità di ogni suite e la riservatezza che le alte pareti sembrano in grado di garatire. Pannelli alti per riparare da sguardi indiscreti, grigi all’esterno per avere un look minimalista e color legno all’interno per creare un ambiente meno impersonale e più caldo.

Geniale sono  lo scomparto nella parte esterna della suite per riporre il proprio abito in modo che non si pieghi, i numerosi scomparti (alcuni a scomparsa) per i propri oggetti personali, spazio sotto il poggiapiedi per riporre una valigia. E’ probabile che le cappelliere siano rimosse in modo da creare un ambiente più arioso e meno claustrofobico.

Le poltrone sono firmate Phyten, leader nella creazione di prodotti tecnologici al titanio mentre iI materassini ad alta resistenza “Airweave”  distribuiranno la pressione del corpo su tutta la superficie garantendo il miglior sostegno possibile a tutto il corpo, Per ogni passeggero saranno disponibili enormi e soffici cuscini, pantofole, comodi pigiami, maschera per gli occhi e tappi per le orecchie, senza tralasciare prodotti aromaterapici che garantiranno un sonno eccellente a bordo.

L’IFE sarà composto da un sistema Audio Video on Demand di ultima generazione con un video LCD da 23 pollici e tecnologia Touchscreen : oltre 160 programmi tra cui scegliere, e la possibilità – ancora mai sperimentata finora – di fare ordinare bevande, cibi, pranzi e articoli dal Duty Free Shop di bordo stando seduti al proprio posto utilizzando l’IFE. Insomma, ogni cosa a portata di mano.

Ma le novità non finiscono qui: il catering sarà curato ulteriormente e diverrà se possibile ancora più esclusivo con i piatti più prelibati creati dai migliori chef del mondo, mentre per quanto riguarda i servizi a terra bisognerà attendere l’autunno del 2010 per avere delle sostanziali novità; a Tokyo Narita verrà infatti approntata un’area dedicata per i passeggeri di first class in un ambiente moderno e minimale, dove ciascun passeggero potrà svolgere le varie operazioni in assoluta tranquillità.

Infine, novità anche sul fronte Lounge, poichè le sale d’attesa verranno ammodernate e rinominate come ANA FIRST LOUNGE. Ogni passeggero avrà a disposizione una stanza per sè dove servito e riverito potrà rilassarsi, riposare, lavorare o cenare prima di salire a bordo!

BUSINESS CLASS

Cambio di look completo anche in business class. Abbandonato il concetto tradizionale degli ANGLED FLAT SEATS, All Nippon Airways si lancia sulle poltrone in grado di distendersi in maniera perfettamente orizzontale.

Il concept che verrà utilizzato è quello degli STAGGERED SEAT (non a caso il brand sarà appunto ANA STAGGERED BUSINESS), già utilizzato da compagnie come la Etihad Airways e che stando a insistenti rumours dovrebbe essere installato anche sui nuovi velivoli Alitalia.

Il layout di cabina (configurazione 1-2-1) permetterà – grazie alla posizione sfalsata di ogni poltrona rispetto all’altra – uno spazio maggiore per ogni passeggero (si parla del 150% rispetto al passato), l’accesso al corridoio da ciascun posto e un grado di privacy elevato.

Ogni posto offre uno spazio più che adeguato, una seduta comoda che si trasforma semplicemente in letto, un tavolino per mangiare o lavorare e un monitor LCD da 17 pollici.

Anche per la business class, le poltrone sono state create utilizzando la tecnologia aquatitanium brevettata da Phyten.

Non mancano naturalmente una vasta gamma di articoli quali pigiama, trousse, pantofole e prodotti di cosmesi per rendere il viaggio ancora più gradevole.

Aumentano sensibilmente gli spazi a disposizione di ogni passeggero: dallo scomparto per le scarpe, a quello per il bagaglio a mano, senza dimenticare altri piccoli cassettini disseminati intorno alla propria poltrona.

Il catering sarà completamente ripensato e diverrà à la Carte così da permettere a ogni passeggero di scegliere non solo QUANDO ma anche COSA mangiare.

Per quanto infine riguarda l’IFE, anche in business class sarà disponibile un sistema Audio Video On Demand con una vasta scelta tra oltre 160 programmi. Ogni passeggero potrà anche collegare un iPod o altri dispositivi tramite una porta USB opportunamente approntata, fermo restando la possibilità di ordinare cibi, bevande, o articoli dal Duty Freeshop utilizzando il monitor LCD con tecnologia touchscreen.

PREMIUM ECONOMY CLASS

Novità anche per la Premium Economy, poichè la spaziosità aumenterà ulteriormente arrivando fino a 42 pollici. La struttura a shell permetterà ai passeggeri di poter reclinare il proprio sedile senza arrecare disturbo a coloro che sono seduti dietro. Interessante – oltre che utile l’utilizzo di nuovi pannelli divisori tra i posti per aumentare il livello di privacy di ogni passeggero.

Ognuno dei posti, il cui design è stato studiato nei minimi dettagli offrirà oltre al tradizionale tavolino anche un ripiano aggiuntivo estraibile ed un monitor LCD da 12 pollici

Sempre a proposito di IFE, All Nippon Airways metterà a disposizione per ciascun posto una porta USB per connettere i propri dispositivi, un connettore per iPod e non ultimo cuffie in grado di ridurre il rumore esterno.

La poltrona, sempre prodotta da Phyten garantisce un alto livello di confort che unita alla grande spaziosità la rende la poltrona più grande di premium economy attualmente disponibile.

ECONOMY CLASS

All Nippon Airways non ha trascurato nemmeno l’economy class: con il nuovo prodotto di bordo aumenta anche lo spazio per le gambe e la distanza tra le file che passa da 31 a 34 pollici, segnando così un nuovo primato, poichè non esistono poltrone di economy così spaziose con gli altri vettori.

Seguendo la tecnologia implementata per prima da Cathay Pacific, anche il vettore giapponese ha optato per l’installazione di sedili con schienale fisso che non arreca disturbo ai passeggeri seduti dietro. La reclinabilità è garantita da un opportuno scivolamento della seduta propriamente detta e di una parte dello schienale (non la shell).

Ogni sedile è equipaggiato con poggiapiedi e poggiatesta che garantiranno una più confortevole permanenza a bordo.

L’IFE sarà disponibile con monitor da 10,6 pollici a tecnologia touchscreen e l’AVOD offrirà – come per le altre classi – una selezione di oltre 160 programmi, porta USB e connettore per iPod.

CONCLUDENDO

Le aspettative da una compagnia come All Nippon Airways erano elevate e devo dire che non sono state disattese.
La nuova First class colpisce per l’enorme grado di privacy che pare in grado di offrire a ogni passeggero. Assolutamente innovativo e interessante è l’idea di utilizzare l’IFE per ordinare bevande e cibi, fatto questo che ad oggi non conosce eguali.
La business class conferma quanto i vettori all’avanguardia guardino con interesse agli herringbone seats e gli staggered seats che vengono sempre più preferiti ai layout tradizionali. L’accesso al corridoio ed uno spazio personale maggiore rappresentano un beneficio estremamente apprezzato dai fruitori della business class, con particolare riguardo a coloro che viaggiano singolarmente.

Tuttavia ritengo che – più di tutto – siano degne di nota le classi che tradizionalmente vengono trascurate dalle compagnie aeree.
All Nippon Airways in assoluta controtendenza (ma forse non è un caso) ha dedicato ampio spazio sia alla premium economy che all’ecnomy. Riducendo la capacità di bordo, offre spazi in entrambi le classi finora sconosciuti che la pongono in cima a questo speciale tipo di classifica. L’introduzione di sedili con shell non reclinabile evidenziano, se mai ve ne fosse bisogno, l’attenzione con cui ANA si è rapportata a queste due classi di servizio che – in seguito alla crisi – sono tornate molto in auge anche tra i viaggiatori d’affari.

Fonte notizia e foto: www.ana.co.jp

     Now it can be told… Portland Firefly has not been writing recently for several reasons…   The best of which is that she has been traveling for the last two weeks.  Yes, I have felt well enough to take a well-planned, wonderful trip to Spain.   Soon you will have the opportunity to read of some of the beautiful places we visited, but this post has a more current message to convey.

  As most of you know, I am a retired Flight  Attendant.  And  part of my benefits is that I am able to fly for a very low-cost.  I took advantage of this benefit and flew in the equivalent of first class for all four legs of my recent trip to Spain and back home again.  Wow, what a wonderful experience! 

    I took the opportunity to speak to the lovely, professional Flight Attendants of American Airlines  who were working the flights I traveled.  You may recall that part of my ‘mission’  is to educate women about the subtle symptoms  of the type of cancer that I have — primary peritoneal carcinoma , the deadly step-sister to ovarian cancer.  I carried cards that list the symptoms and passed them out to the Flight Attendants after they had completed their service requirements.  There were two who had friends with these symptoms and even though we hope that they have something else, at least they have a direction to check out the unexplained symptoms that their friends are having. 

   And talk about a fabulous service!   These veteran Flight Attendants knew what they are doing and did it very well.  As one who has walked in their shoes, I was especially appreciative of the excellent service provided on my flights from Portland to Dallas and Dallas to Madrid and back to Dallas and Portland again. 

   And so…. to all of my Flight Attendants, Portland Firefly sends a great big THANK YOU for four very memorable flights.  You do make the difference and, of  course, you know it.   Keep up the good work and fly safe. 

    If you are interested in reading my post about the 9/11 terrorists that I had on board two of my flights prior to the terrorist attacks,  just put 9/11 into the search box. 

   Thanks again from Portland Firefly.

First Class Flurry (27 MB download)
Master customer service at a whole new level: 35,000 feet above ground! Help flight attendant Claire pamper unpredictable passengers and bring Starlink Airlines back to the top! Fly around the world attending to economy class, business class, royal first class and beyond. Customize and upgrade your plane to make sure your passengers have a wonderful flight! It’s time for you to fly!

I am travelling in a first class compartment of the Mumbai suburban railways, and two youngsters come aboard at a particular station. By the way of their dressing it seems that they were in a wrong compartment. But who am I to judge. May be they are rich enough to travel by first class but not educated enough to have the right sense of dressing. But the people around me seem to take more than just notice of it. One particular ‘gentleman’ inform them in much more than a polite manner about the situation. They quietly alight at the very next station.

Another incident. Again in the first class compartment of  a suburban train. Again a youth enters the first class compartment. His way of dressing is not to much of a high class, but he is accompanied by his mother, who, because of her age, might not be in a position to dress to the liking of the first class ‘gentlemen’. People start giving mean stares and a self-appointed leader gets up from his seat to inform in a loud voice, “This is a first class compartment”. The youth looks up at him, in to his eyes, and replies, sternly, “So?”. The leader quietly sits down. Case closed. It’s established that the youth, and his aged mother, are bona-fide first class travellers.

My colleague once said that he felt that first class travellers are kind of snobs with too much of self-pride. Though I travel first class, I do not take his statement as a personal offence. The above two incidents are case to the point.

In the first incident, these two youths looked to me like first timers to the city. Now, travelling in Mumbai suburban trains, is very difficult due to crowd. And more so, for people from outstation. I am sure these youths had taken tickets for their journey but landed in the wrong compartment due to lack of knowledge or, may be, lack of reading skills. Of course, Mumbai suburban trains are colour coded, but thats a fact known to mumbaikars, and not publicised to the nation. So the youths were not much in wrong. It was for the people to guide them properly and in a more polite manner. Who are we to judge whether a person is bona-fide passenger, going by his attire? If we go by attire, I guarantee that more of the very well dressed passengers are travelling ticketless.

The second incident was kind of a virtual slap on the face for the self-proclaimed leader. Seeing an old lady with the youth, he could have been more considerate by offering her his seat. But he prefered to be a leader. And he got his dues.

People….People…Let the ticket examiners do the job meant for them. For us, it a responsibility to look in to our pockets and check whether we are travelling ticketless.

The Solar System is a topic that children find interesting and are eager to learn and with the help of the Planet 10 website learning about the planets becomes even more fun. Children enter a virtual Solar System with accompanying eerie music, where they can take a tour of the Solar System, zooming in and out on different planets and changing the viewing angle. Children can also find out information about all the planets, the Sun, comets and asteroids.

The website also includes a great game where children create their own planet. They get to chose the size, tilt, chemical make up, position in relation to the sun and a whole host of others before launching the planet into the Solar System to see how it gets on.

While on the topic of the Solar System I recently discovered, thanks to a 6th class student, that you can explore the Moon and Mars using Google Earth and it is also possible to explore the stars using Google Space.

Lastly, if like me you are frustrated by youtube being blocked in school I have found a website called videojug which is not blocked in schools and has some educational videos including the following, relating to Earth and the Solar System:
All About Earth
The Planets Explained
The Seasons Explained

British Airways has launched a Visa card

This is the best credit card offer ever. For signing up, you get 50,000 British Airways miles enough for a free economy seat to Europe. You earn 1.25 miles per $ spent. If you spend $2,000 in the first three months, you get an additional bonus of 50,000 British Airways miles. Enough for another free economy seat to Europe.

If you spend $30,000 in the first year, they’ll send you a complementary buy one get one free reward ticket certificate.

It gets better. You can pool your household British Airways miles. So to recap

You therefore can fly ANYWHERE in the world that British Airways flies in FIRST CLASS for free. LA to Dubai for example for $32,000 in spending!

I investigated a resource named That Quiz which was recommended by a Twitter user yesterday. At first sight it is a grey, boring looking, run-of-the-mill website but upon investigation I found out that it is far more than that. It may not be pretty but it is extremely effective at what it is trying to achieve and I will definitely be using it on an on-going basis in future.

The website is basically a one-stop assessment shop. Teachers can register their name and the names of the students in their class very simply, which I did yesterday in around 5-10 minutes. There are then a host of pre-designed tests which a teacher can create by selecting a few basic parameters (e.g. number of questions, level of difficulty, etc). While the interface is very uninspiring, by being grey, it is very easy to use. It took me only a couple of minutes to set a fractions test which comprised of 20 questions testing the children on addition and subtraction of proper fractions. Once the test has been set the teacher is given a code. Students then use this code to login, select their name from a list and complete the test. The tests could be completed 1 by 1 on a PC at the back of the room or all together using a group of PCs. When students complete the test they are given their result and it is saved for the teacher to login in and view later.

I have only started using the site and it is definitely a runner for testing Maths. There are also some English, Science and Geography tests which I have yet to check out. Another idea I have for using this site is to set up some sample tests and give the children the code in their homework notebook to practice at home. It will definitely reduce correcting time.

Sembra surreale ma United è nuovamente protagonista di un episodio tragicomico.

A farne le spese è il signor Alvarez che lunedì 26 ottobre dopo aver ottenuto un upgrade con le miglia per volare in First Class da Washington al Connecticut, si è visto chiamare al gate e rifiutare l’upgrade perchè vestito in “modo inappropriato”…

Piccolo particolare: il signor Alvarez è nientemeno che un manager del gigante del retailing Best Buy, nonchè un navigato frequent flyer di United!

Alvarez non l’ha presa molto bene e dopo la pubblica umiliazione (detto tra noi, è vero che era vestito molto casual ma indossava tutta roba di marca – Puma) è passato al contrattacco. Mail e telefonate alla compagnia – United Airlines – oltre che un’intervista con FOX5.

Nessuna risposta ufficiale da United, almeno per il momento.

Non è un atteggiamento discriminatorio quello di negare un upgrade per il dress code? Ma soprattutto, chi stabilisce cosa è adatto o inadatto a viaggiare in First Class (peraltro si tratta di un volo regional, quindi equiparabile alla business class di un volo Londra – Milano): detto in altre parole, dove può un passeggero documentarsi sul vestiario da indossare?

Infine mi permetto una nota: ma alla United hanno osservato bene alcuni individui che viaggiano in First Class? C’è gente che si presenta in shorts, altri in costume…. onestamente, la tuta della Puma è quasi un capo di haute–couture, al confronto!

Fonte notizia e foto

Seit dem Wochenende gelten für alle Banken die neuen Richtlinien der EU für den Zahlungsverkehr. Darunter fallen auch neue Regelungen für den Verlust von Kredit  und EC Karten. Wie unterschiedlich Banken den Verlust einer Karte handhaben ist mir erst vor ein paar Monaten aufgefallen. Ich besitze zur Zeit zwei Konten bei einer Direktbank, der Deutschen Kreditbank Berlin (DKB). Vor gut 3 Monaten kamen mir innerhalb von 24 Stunden beide EC Karten abhanden. Direkt nachdem ich den Verlust bemerkt hatte, habe ich Karten bei der allgemeinen Sperrhotline 116 116 sperren lassen. Bei der ersten Karte rief ichdann später die DKB Hotline an und es wurde für mich ohne Probleme eine Ersatzkarte bestellt. Die zweite Karte bestellte ich dann selbst über das online Portal. Beide Karten trafen wenige Tage später bei mir ein, ohne dass mir eine Gebühr berechnet wurde. Erst hinterher stellte ich fest, dass das nicht selbstverständlich ist. Viele Banken berechnen nicht nur für das Ausstellen einer neuen Karte, sondern sogar für das Sperren der alten Karte eine Gebühr. Dazu kommt, dass das Konto der DKB komplett kostenlos ist. Das ist Service, wie man ihn heute leider selten erlebt.

First Class

Hey Everyone,

As we stated before we are giving out 5 American Airlines First Class Vouchers which are usable for domestic and international flights. It’s easy to take part in this competition just comment on one of our blog posts stating what your dream getaway  is and why?

Thank you and I hope you have fun in this competition,

Dream Travel Team

Badger Wood is an interactive website which teaches children about the affects road building can have on woodland areas. It is another bright, colourful website with plenty of information. It focuses on the environmental damage and how the different species of the woodlands are affected. The site includes an interactive game where children search the forest to find the animals that live there and to ask them questions. So really the site works twofold – it teaches the children about protecting the environment and it teaches them about the different animals that live in a woodland. The site fits in nicely with the Environmental Awareness and Care strands of Science and Geography. It also ties in with the Living Things strand in Science. It is aimed more for the middle classes (1st-4th) as the older children will probably find it a bit too childish.

Bora Bora is an Island of mysteries,romance and beauty.   It’s a wonderful place to spend one‘s vaccations since it is located in the French Polynesia. It’s hot temperatures and beautiful sees make it a unique place to stay at.  Here are some quick looks at the island.

Where To stay at

If you are looking for a Luxury stay at the island consider staying at one of the following hotels:

Bora Bora Nui Resort and Spa

This Beautiful Five star resort is located on a Beautiful Private Inlet of Bora Bora and is a so-called NewBenchmark for Elegance in French Polynesia. This Resort is the Most Exclusive bay and has a white sanded beach and Crystal blue lagoons.    Rate: 240 Dollars per night

Bora Bora Lagoon Resort and Spa Top Choice For Luxury Travelers

Located On A Private Island Just One Mile From The Main Island Of Bora Bora And A Scenic Boat Ride From Bora Bora Airport. Bora Bora Lagoon Resort Is A Secluded Enclave On An Unspoiled Island With No Roads Or Villages With Direct Access To Spectacular Reefs Lush Gardens And Pristine Beaches.                         Rate: 400 Dollars per night

Where to Eat

Most Likely the Resort that you will be staying at will have a great amount of choices for Restaurants. However if you wish to dine in the main Island here are your top 3 restaurants

1. Bloody Mary: Bloody Mary’s is essentially an American-style barbecued fish and steak joint — a welcome relief after a diet of lard-laden French sauces. You’ll be shown the seafood and beef laid out on a bed of ice.                               Price Range: $$$

2.  La Havana: You will need one night for fun at Bloody Mary’s, another for a romantic dinner at this extraordinarily fine little restaurant, the best in all of French Polynesia.  Price Range: $$$

3. Bora Bora Burgers: Cheap and small Bora Bora Burgers offers delicious burgers at delicious prices.              Price Range: $

What To do

There are several things you can do in Bora Bora such as watersports, swimming and terrific dining which is most commonly provided by the hotels.

How To Get There

Hawaiian Airlines and Quantas offer regular flights to Bora Bora. For a specific schedule of the Flights and Prices from Area please comment on this blog with your question.

Creating Your Perfect Trip

Please Conact us or write an email and we will be glad to assist you in any of your travels to Bora Bora or other places. Further questions to Bora Bora and about the Hotels and restaurants please comment below. We would also be very please if you have any addition to this guide.

I’m sitting here with a coffee from Starbucks, its cold outside and I can hear the rain slowly pouring. I feel cold so I decide to cuddle up under a blanket and think about where I could be right now, the Maldives, Bahamas, Seychelles and so many other places that seem to be paradise to so many of us.

We all love experiencing new

The teams favourite Getaway

things and visiting new places. There are so many places we would want to visit in luxury if possible. We can dream about visiting places in the future and start planning our journeys. This blog will give tips and advice on the best places to stay in every single astonishing country. The blog will cheap air fare tickets for us economists and also more luxury alternatives for luxury travelers. By reading this blog you have instant access to top places to eat,stay and do from a first hand source that has been experienced by our team of experts. Request information about any place you are planning to visit and we will create a whole schedule for you and post it on this blog or send it to you privately. From luxury yachts, to five-star hotels this blog will include all your travelling desires. To celebrate the opening of this blog 5  American Airlines  First Class vouchers will be given to the lucky winners of the competition . Taking part is simple: Just comment on what your perfect luxury getaway and why you believe it is.

I

This is a great interactive website about safety in the home, probably geared more at the younger classes. It’s bright, colourful and has some great sound effects. The website can be directly applied to the ‘Safety and Protection’ strand of the SPHE curriculum. It goes through safety in all areas of the home – kitchen, living room, the bedroom and the garden. It also shows children what to do in the event of a fire in the house. It’s a great opportunity to make your SPHE lessons come alive on the whiteboard, because I know from personal experience there are not too many chances to do so.

The Hat is a really useful free piece of software that can be downloaded and used in any classroom. It is a very basic programme which performs a draw as if you had put a bunch of names into a hat and selected at random. The children find that it is the fairest and most fun way of picking people for jobs, presenting projects, getting free newspapers, etc. Not only can you draw out a name at a time but you can also draw out pairs of names. I have used this when doing projects in pairs and I’m sure I will find many more uses for it.

Another area where this comes in handy is for playing games like Bingo in Irish. For example we were doing the counties of Ireland last week and I quickly entered the names into the hat and picked the counties using the software. It plays a great drumroll before displaying each name and the children really enjoy it and they won’t complain about it being unfair.

Here I am in Germany! Hubby, son and I arrived bright and early this morning after the overnight trans-Atlantic flight. We went from Indy to Atlanta, then an almost 9-hour jaunt into Frankfurt, followed by an hour-long train ride to Cologne and a taxi to the hotel. The flight itself was made ultimately much more bearable by hubby working some voodoo magic on the gate attendant in Atlanta and somehow managing to get us upgraded to first-class seats. Which kicked ALL kinds of ass and set a good tone for the beginning of the trip.

Something you should know before I say any more – I am not a good flier. You’d think after living in L.A. for nearly two years and all the back and forths from there, not to mention 10, count ‘em, 10 trips to Europe, I’d be well over any flying fears I might have harbored. Not so. If anything, my flying anxiety is just as intense now as it ever was. Once we actually get underway and in the air, I’m not too bad, but the anticipation of the trip in the days just prior leaves me frantically checking turbulenceforecast.com and making sure I’m stocked up on Dramamine.

I am sad to say that while the extra space and attention in first-class was HEAVENLY, especially considering we were traveling with a very busy and curious 18-month old, the food was wasted on me. I rarely eat on airplanes. I have a sneaking feeling that eating an airplane meal en route would not sit well on my already-nervous stomach. I can’t imagine hitting turbulence just after downing a nuked lasagna would really be a good idea. And I definitely do not want to be THAT girl.

Hubby is a frequent flier, to say the least. He may even hit diamond/platinum/master of the universe status this year when it comes to frequent flier miles on Northwest/Delta. He crosses oceans like he’s crossing the street. I have lately begun telling him he’s turned into a travel snob, but after getting the first-class treatment on such a long flight, I am shutting my mouth. No wonder he whines like a stuck pig anytime he doesn’t automatically get upgraded and has to sit in, sniff, coach.

Hubby has no problem eating while flying, and I must admit, the menu in first-class was tempting. But I refrained, content to observe hubby with his meal of choice. First course was spinach salad with feta, roasted pepper soup and a scoop of hummus covered in toasted pine nuts. For the main, he had a surf and turf deal with a filet, shrimp, risotto and sugar snap peas. Oh, and free Heineken. It all looked tasty enough, but when it comes to my tummy, I usually try to follow a better-safe-than-sorry mantra if there’s any doubt.

Once we landed in Frankfurt and my feet were back on solid ground, I was hungry. We hit a cafe in the airport where we fed the baby and I scarfed down some scrambled eggs with ham, fresh orange juice and some of my son’s strawberries. Nothing spectacular, but it certainly hit the spot at that moment.

Jet lag has taken its toll on all three of us today. Neither hubby nor I got much sleep on the plane in spite of our lux accommodations, as we took turns baby-wrangling and trying to shush our son anytime he roused, which was often. Have you ever seen footage of those guys who try to wrestle alligators and the alligators end up twisting and rolling about a thousand times a second to escape roping? That’s what it’s like trying to hold our son while he sleeps. He eventually dozed off soundly, thank God, but didn’t get nearly enough rest. By the time we caught the train, made it to our hotel in Cologne and took a quick walk out for some much-needed coffee and a croissant, the sleep-deprivation was really catching up with all of us. A nap was definitely in order.

Hubby spent a month in Cologne last fall, so he knows his way around pretty well. The baby and I were supposed to join him then, but one thing after another went wrong and we never made it. I’ve been to Cologne once before for a weekend when I came over to visit my then-boyfriend, now-hubby five years ago (he was living just outside Frankfurt at the time).

Cologne is an interesting place. The architecture is very old and Gothic, although the city was all but destroyed during the World Wars and much has been repaired. In stark contrast to the cobbled streets and the awe-inspiring Dom that dwarfs everything around it, the city is highly modern, a media capital full of state-of-the-art shopping and hopping nightlife. The city nestles along the Rhine River, providing a scenic viewpoint and a home for charming riverside hotels and restaurants. Cologne is about the same size as the Indianapolis metro area when it comes to population, and I believe is even paired with Indianapolis as a sister city. You’d never mistake the two in a million years, though.

the massive Cologne Dom (Cathedral)

Post-nap, the baby went into the stroller and out we went to get some air and get reacquainted with Cologne. It looked pretty much the same as I remember, and I was able to recognize some of the quaint streets, pubs and restaurants we’d been before, once upon a time. One particular establishment we decided to revisit was Papa Joe’s – a kitschy beer hall kind of place whose main claim to fame is two animatronic musicians, one playing an accordion and one playing some sort of small tuba. These two robotic creatures “play” upon their perch anytime a patron drops in a coin and makes a song selection, much like a jukebox. The figures are a big draw, but it’s vaguely creepy to see their eyes roll your way as they bang out polka classics.

When hubby and I stopped in this place five years ago, the smoking ban hadn’t yet been instituted and it was like a wall of smoke when you walked through the door. We somehow managed to stay for a drink and watched as a group of Japanese tourists entered, then quickly exited, coughing and gagging. Thank goodness, it’s now smoke-free, so we were able to bring our son in for the fun.

Tonight, a small group of rowdy beer-swilling men had taken over the bar, singing loudly along with the traditional German tunes the animatronic duo cranked out, glasses raised and waving proudly. Picture a German bar version of “Piano Man” and you sort of get the idea. And it isn’t just German songs either, there are even a few little ditties in the catalog that I recognize. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard a bunch of drunk middle-aged German men belting out John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Road.” This amusement was followed up by a polka version of, I kid you not, “Billie Jean.” I could hardly believe my ears. It was good, clean fun, and we stayed for a glass of Gaffel Kolsch, the local quaff of choice. The waitress took a shine to Michael, even going so far as to snatch him up out of my arms and whisk him behind the bar for an up-close look at the robot musicians and a  few wafer cookies. He blew her a kiss on the way out; now I know we’ll have to go back.

More wandering built up our appetites and after being shut-out of a German pub/restaurant hubby wanted to go to (they were full, apparently), we ended up at a crepe place. These were not your ordinary crepes, though; they were more like large square hot pockets stuffed with a whole menu of tasty fillings. Hubby got one wrapped around a meaty tomato sauce, almost like a spaghetti Bolognese, without the spaghetti. It must have been good because he even tolerated a few specs of onion he spied in the filling. My crepe housed a medley of veggies heavy on the broccoli and onion, with cheese and tomato sauce holding it all together.

Full and tired, we managed to wind our way back to the hotel, where we are trying to prop our eyelids open for another hour or two before finally succumbing to jet lag and sleeping the sleep of the dead. I want to write more, but at the risk of becoming incoherent, I think I’ll save some for tomorrow.